Docno

Can't even say that anymore... sigh https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2024/03/24/blacklisted-is-racist-us-america-warns-its-spies/

Trust me, they're a lot more fun that mosque concerts (and I've actually been to both)...

I only wonder if the police would have been helpful and generous had the passengers been a pair of beer-gutted old fellas...

See: Indonesians Denied Entry to Thailand, Embassy Implements 20,000 Baht Rules | Social Expat Doesn't seem to be an isolated incident, and Indonesia has provided some appropriate guidance to its citizens. That said, we can't be sure this really happened to her or if she exploited the issue for extra views. That's the bizarre world we now live in...

You must mean 'not enough ganja', right? From a 2016 paper: "It is concluded that alcohol facilitates feelings of aggression whereas cannabis diminishes aggressive feelings in heavy alcohol and regular cannabis users, respectively."

Old story from the 90s I heard from RCMP colleagues back in the day. Russian gangs started establishing themselves in Toronto and Montreal in the early 90s, pushing back the biker and Italian gangs. Supposedly it was because they were particularly ruthless and aggressive as they had no fear of Canadian prisons which they considered resorts compared to Russian prisons (so I was told). They became more and more ambitious, expanding westwards until they moved into the Vancouver area. There, they supposedly locked horns with the Vietnamese gangs who quickly sent them packing back east. The Vietnamese gangs were even harder than the Russians (maybe Vietnamese prisons are even worse than Russian ones). So maybe it's understandable that this fellow figured leaping out of a moving plane was the better choice...

Looks like everyone here is lined up to be judge, jury, and executioner before an investigation has been completed, much less a trial. Guess people don't pack their 'western' principles of justice and a fair trial when they move overseas.

Clearly a Brit because he used the gun as if it were a bottle or a glass ...

Just another Bollywood action thriller being filmed...

And no-one mentions the possible meaning and implications of the Thai wife having a male 'foreign friend' who visits her? Even if nothing is going on, he will certainly be regarded as a threat to a drunken Thai man ... some chance that the Canadian lives in a nicer house, maybe has a car, etc etc. Wouldn't take much in addition to alcohol to push that situation over the edge

If she was a bar girl, she probably had a fair number of customers, which means there would be a sizeable number of 'guilty parties' out there, probably from all over the world. Maybe someone just wants to see Germany in winter...

Even with her face blurred, looks like a fair bit of surgery under there... and why the blurring anyway, if she's a well-known 'influencer'? (Godz, I hate that word!)

Looks like a hell of a nice guy - a real angel!

Maybe the 23 Thai hostages held in Gaza at the moment? (Not to mention all those murdered on Oct 7). Given the large presence of Thais in Israel and Thailand's past record in the Far South, crazies like Hamas and their supporters may see Thailand as being 'on the other side'.

Now they're being kicked out of the Kingdom, I'm just curious to see who will get to keep the more than 20 luxury cars they found at the compound. 😏🤔

Wow - that's the first time I've been called 'woke'. I had to stop laughing before replying. I think you need to understand 'woke' doesn't mean 'anyone who thinks differently from me'.

I'm expecting a very entertaining Bollywood film to come out of this...

I have nothing against the Russian people (their government is another issue entirely), and have met some very nice Russians in the past, but it does send an 'interesting' message to the international community... special treatment for Russians at this time in history and all that.

Sounds like the Thai police are far too reliant on confessions (and I can only imagine what they might do to extract them ... I still remember the plastic-bag-over-the-head incident). According to the Innocence Project, approximately 25% of individuals who were wrongfully convicted but later exonerated through DNA evidence had made false confessions or incriminating statements ... and that's in the US where interrogations are recorded and scrutinised. Also, wasn't the title used here a week ago: "Norwegian man murders his Thai boyfriend in Chiang Mai" with several people noting that there should be a presumption of innocence? I guess this latest development proves their point...

I have an Israeli friend (really, the husband of my wife's friend), and he was aware of what was happening in Israel before it hit the news stations. Some friends of his who live there went 'off the grid' at the start of the attack, and he was understandably anxious about their fate. Fortunately, they turned out to be ok. But he was and is stressed about the whole situation ... not because he could ever be called up (he's an older guy) but out of concern for the people he cares. We don't have any idea if this man's family or friends were impacted by this atrocity...

No delusion here. I'm an atheist reading the Qur'an for a third time at the moment (with commentary by Robert Spencer, if you know him), so I know very well what it contains. Do you? It's certainly not a 'religion of peace', but I know many Muslims (most of whom have never read the Quran in a language they understand, much less the hadiths), and they don't have values different from you or I. You have to understand that what people believe is often different from what can be found in their holy books. Want a template for war and war crimes -- read the Old Testament some time (which is the template for Quran, btw). But you won't find many Jews today advocating the enslavement of war captives, the destruction of whole peoples, etc (all of which is in the OT)

Just to add some nuance. My wife is Muslim, and she was disgusted by that (and everything else Hamas has perpetrated in the past few days). Her best friend, also Muslim, is married to an Israeli-Russian-American Jew ... no disagreement between them on who's the 'evil' party there as well. The problem is that Islam is too easy to hijack for nefarious ends because Muhammad wasn't exactly a peace-loving 'hippie' like Jesus or the Buddha.

You mean Hamas, the group (singular) that has proudly taken responsibility for their atrocities already? This is not the time for diplomatic niceties... your citizens have been murdered.

That cap says it all...

Wait... So, a hotel can sue a guest for a truthful negative review, but the Chinese can get away with slandering a whole nation. Yep, makes sense.